Majora's Mask

Yes, I know I should have started writing something earlier tonight, but I got rather caught up playing Majora's Mask, one of the earlier Zelda games available on the Gamecube as part of a Zelda's Collectors Edition package. Like it's siblings in Nintendo's long running franchise it's a superb game and thoroughly addictive. At the beginning of the game you're restricted to a relatively confined area of the game world, but the manner in which the world subsequently unfolds and blossoms as you work your way through various quests is a wonderful mechanic, and one which Nintendo in particular seem to have mastered (despite the fact that Metroid Prime and it's sequel masquerade as first person shooters they in fact bear far more similarity to Zelda, in terms of control and play). It can in turns be intensely frustrating and immensely rewarding.

Zelda games typically repeat the same classical story in which the hero Link rescues the Princess Zelda from the clutches of the evil Gannandorf. It's hardly the most original of storylines, particularly when combined with the games fantasy trappings, but the depth and texture with which Nintendo embroider the world and inhabitants of Hyrule save the game from spiralling into a black hole of cliche. Majora's Mask, however, escapes these trappings and introduces a new and unique theme which sees Link abandoning the land of Hyrule for the world of Termina, where a mischievous imp, possessed by an evil mask, is intent in bringing eerie grinning moon crashing down upon Termina, leaving you with just three days to stop him. The first problem you encounter is that you three days pass rather more quickly than you'd expect them too - each night and night passes in roughly 20 minutes in fact. This soon leads to one of the games most interesting quirks, in that you're granted the ability to return, Groundhog Day style, to the beginning of the three day cycle. Thankfully most of the items you earn as you play stay with you even as you jaunt backwards in time, and many of these will grant you access to areas of the world previously denied to you, allowing you to progress forwards even as you turn back the clock again.

In addition to saving the world, Majora's Mask also challenges you to uncover an enormous array of masks, most of which grant you curious new abilities. Some of these masks are necessary to advance through the game, others will aid you in the many side quests you might chance to uncover along the way. Most of these side quests involve aiding those you encounter in your main quest. Of course, to help them there's a good chance you'll need to catch them at the right moment in the three day cycle, and you might even find you need to wear the appropriate mask to do so. It's a deep and richly detailed mechanic, that greatly extends the life of an already lengthy game.

Majora's Mask was originally released for the Nintendo 64 and runs under emulation on the Gamecube. The graphics and audio are as crude as you might expect as a result, but spend some time with the game and you'll come to appreciate just how little these matter. The game itself has stood the test of time extremely well, and in terms of play I much prefer it to it's successor, The Wind Waker. Both games share a number of flaws in common, however - Please can I beg Nintendo, if you insist on showing the player the same cut-scene more than once, please, please offer some way to skip through it the second time, regardless of how short the sequence may be. I promise you there is no animation or dialogue so astoundingly brilliant or astonishly beautiful that the player will not weary of after witnessing it for the 100th time. Still in the grand scheme of things it's a minor complaint, and Majora's Mask stands as a more than worth addition to the Zelda legend. Those of you with Gamecubes or ageing N64's would do well to track down a copy if you haven't already played it.

It's really jolly good.